Data object visualization

ABSTRACT

A fact repository stores objects. Each object includes a collection of facts, where a fact comprises an attribute and a value. A set of objects from the fact repository are designated for analysis. The presentation engine presents the facts of the objects in a user interface (UI) having a table. Through manipulation of the UI, an end-user can add or remove facts from the table, and sort the table based on the values of particular facts. The presentation engine also presents the facts of the objects in a UI having a graph. Through manipulation of the UI, the end-user can add or remove facts from the graph, and can sort the facts shown in the graph based on values that are shown, or not shown, in the graph. The presentation engine can further present the facts of the objects in UIs including maps and timelines.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the following U.S. Applications, all ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein:

U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Data Object VisualizationUsing Maps”, filed concurrently herewith, by Andrew W. Hogue, DavidVespe, Alex Kehlenbeck, Mike Gordon, Jeffrey C. Reynar, David Alpert,Attorney Docket No. 24207-10947;

U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Object Categorization forInformation Extraction”, filed concurrently herewith, by Jonathan T.Betz, Attorney Docket No. 24207-10952;

U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Designating Data Objects forAnalysis”, filed concurrently herewith, by Andrew W. Hogue, David Vespe,Alex Kehlenbeck, Mike Gordon, Jeffrey C. Reynar, David Alpert, AttorneyDocket No. 24207-11126;

U.S. application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Data Object VisualizationUsing Graphs”, filed concurrently herewith, by Andrew W. Hogue, DavidVespe, Alex Kehlenbeck, Mike Gordon, Jeffrey C. Reynar, David Alpert,Attorney Docket No. 24207-11125.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains in general to data visualization on a computerand, in particular, to ways of representing data obtained from web pagesand other sources.

2. Description of the Related Art

The World Wide Web and other information storage and retrieval systemscontain a great deal of information. With the advent of search enginesand other similar tools it has become relatively easy for an end-user tolocate particular information. For example, one can obtain a wealth ofinformation about the atomic elements by simply searching for the terms“atomic elements” on the Web.

It is generally acknowledged that certain types of information areeasier to comprehend when presented in some formats rather than in otherformats. For example, an end-user might find it easier to understand therelationships between the atomic masses of the atomic elements if themasses are presented graphically instead of listed as numeric values.Similarly, trends in stock prices are easier to understand when theprices are presented on a graph rather than as a list of dates andprices.

Information on the web is not always in a format that is easy for theend-user to comprehend. A web site that describes the atomic elementsmight display the periodic table and provide information like the atomicweights, melting points, and densities of the elements, but the site isunlikely to provide a graph of, say, atomic weights versus meltingpoints. As a result, a person who desires to view such a graph mustmanually copy the information into another program that providesgraphing capabilities.

Some web sites, like sites providing stock prices and other financialinformation, provide limited amounts of dynamic content. For example, aperson can interact with such sites to create and manipulate graphsshowing stock prices over time. Even on these sites, however, the personis restricted to a limited set of graphing options. Further, there is noway for a person to graphically manipulate data contained on multipleweb sites short of copying the desired information into separategraphing program.

Therefore, there is a need in the art for a way to enable the end-userto organize and view structured information on web pages in a way thatmakes it easier to comprehend.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above need is met by a system, method, and computer program productfor presenting facts. In one embodiment, an object access moduleestablishes a set of objects, each object having a set of facts, eachfact having an attribute and a corresponding value. An interface moduleprovides a user interface for identifying one or more facts of theobjects in the set to present. A presentation module presents on theuser interface a representation of the identified facts of the objectsin the set, where the representation describes the attributes andcorresponding values of the identified facts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a network, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 2(a)-2(d) are block diagrams illustrating a data structure forfacts within a repository of FIG. 1 in accordance with preferredembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2(e) is a block diagram illustrating an alternate data structurefor facts and objects in accordance with preferred embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram illustrating modules within apresentation engine according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user interface (UI) contained on a web pagegenerated by the UI generation module according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a UI including a tabular view of objects and factsaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a UI including a graphical view of objects and factsaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a map produced by the graphicalpresentation module and map presentation module according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a timeline produced by the graphicalpresentation module according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating steps performed by the presentationengine according to one embodiment.

The figures depict an embodiment of the present invention for purposesof illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize fromthe following description that alternative embodiments of the structuresand methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing fromthe principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a system architecture 100 adapted to support one embodimentof the invention. FIG. 1 shows components used to add facts into, andretrieve facts from a repository 115. The system architecture 100includes a network 104, through which any number of document hosts 102communicate with a data processing system 106, along with any number ofobject requesters 152, 154.

Document hosts 102 store documents and provide access to documents. Adocument is comprised of any machine-readable data including anycombination of text, graphics, multimedia content, etc. A document maybe encoded in a markup language, such as Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), i.e., a web page, in a interpreted language (e.g., JavaScript)or in any other computer readable or executable format. A document caninclude one or more hyperlinks to other documents. A typical documentwill include one or more facts within its content. A document stored ina document host 102 may be located and/or identified by a UniformResource Locator (URL), or Web address, or any other appropriate form ofidentification and/or location. A document host 102 is implemented by acomputer system, and typically includes a server adapted to communicateover the network 104 via networking protocols (e.g., TCP/IP), as well asapplication and presentation protocols (e.g., HTTP, HTML, SOAP, D-HTML,Java). The documents stored by a host 102 are typically held in a filedirectory, a database, or other data repository. A host 102 can beimplemented in any computing device (e.g., from a PDA or personalcomputer, a workstation, mini-computer, or mainframe, to a cluster orgrid of computers), as well as in any processor architecture oroperating system.

FIG. 1 shows components used to manage facts in a fact repository 115.Data processing system 106 includes one or more importers 108, one ormore janitors 110, a build engine 112, a service engine 114, and a factrepository 115 (also called simply a “repository”). Each of theforegoing are implemented, in one embodiment, as software modules (orprograms) executed by processor 116. Importers 108 operate to processdocuments received from the document hosts, read the data content ofdocuments, and extract facts (as operationally and programmaticallydefined within the data processing system 106) from such documents. Theimporters 108 also determine the subject or subjects with which thefacts are associated, and extract such facts into individual items ofdata, for storage in the fact repository 115. In one embodiment, thereare different types of importers 108 for different types of documents,for example, dependent on the format or document type.

Janitors 110 operate to process facts extracted by importer 108. Thisprocessing can include but is not limited to, data cleansing, objectmerging, and fact induction. In one embodiment, there are a number ofdifferent janitors 110 that perform different types of data managementoperations on the facts. For example, one janitor 110 may traverse someset of facts in the repository 115 to find duplicate facts (that is,facts that convey the same factual information) and merge them. Anotherjanitor 110 may also normalize facts into standard formats. Anotherjanitor 110 may also remove unwanted facts from repository 115, such asfacts related to pornographic content. Other types of janitors 110 maybe implemented, depending on the types of data management functionsdesired, such as translation, compression, spelling or grammarcorrection, and the like.

Various janitors 110 act on facts to normalize attribute names, andvalues and delete duplicate and near-duplicate facts so an object doesnot have redundant information. For example, we might find on one pagethat Britney Spears' birthday is “12/2/1981” while on another page thather date of birth is “Dec. 2, 1981.” Birthday and Date of Birth mightboth be rewritten as Birthdate by one janitor and then another janitormight notice that 12/2/1981 and Dec. 2, 1981 are different forms of thesame date. It would choose the preferred form, remove the other fact andcombine the source lists for the two facts. As a result when you look atthe source pages for this fact, on some you'll find an exact match ofthe fact and on others text that is considered to be synonymous with thefact.

Build engine 112 builds and manages the repository 115. Service engine114 is an interface for querying the repository 115. Service engine114's main function is to process queries, score matching objects, andreturn them to the caller but it is also used by janitor 110.

Repository 115 stores factual information extracted from a plurality ofdocuments that are located on document hosts 102. A document from whicha particular fact may be extracted is a source document (or “source”) ofthat particular fact. In other words, a source of a fact includes thatfact (or a synonymous fact) within its contents.

Repository 115 contains one or more facts. In one embodiment, each factis associated with exactly one object. One implementation for thisassociation includes in each fact an object ID that uniquely identifiesthe object of the association. In this manner, any number of facts maybe associated with an individual object, by including the object ID forthat object in the facts. In one embodiment, objects themselves are notphysically stored in the repository 115, but rather are defined by theset or group of facts with the same associated object ID, as describedbelow. Further details about facts in repository 115 are describedbelow, in relation to FIGS. 2(a)-2(d).

It should be appreciated that in practice at least some of thecomponents of the data processing system 106 will be distributed overmultiple computers, communicating over a network. For example,repository 115 may be deployed over multiple servers. As anotherexample, the janitors 110 may be located on any number of differentcomputers. For convenience of explanation, however, the components ofthe data processing system 106 are discussed as though they wereimplemented on a single computer.

In another embodiment, some or all of document hosts 102 are located ondata processing system 106 instead of being coupled to data processingsystem 106 by a network. For example, importer 108 may import facts froma database that is a part of or associated with data processing system106.

FIG. 1 also includes components to access repository 115 on behalf ofone or more object requesters 152, 154. Object requesters are entitiesthat request objects from repository 115. Object requesters 152, 154 maybe understood as clients of the system 106, and can be implemented inany computer device or architecture. As shown in FIG. 1, a first objectrequester 152 is located remotely from system 106, while a second objectrequester 154 is located in data processing system 106. For example, ina computer system hosting a blog, the blog may include a reference to anobject whose facts are in repository 115. An object requester 152, suchas a browser displaying the blog will access data processing system 106so that the information of the facts associated with the object can bedisplayed as part of the blog web page. As a second example, janitor 110or other entity considered to be part of data processing system 106 canfunction as object requester 154, requesting the facts of objects fromrepository 115.

FIG. 1 shows that data processing system 106 includes a memory 107 andone or more processors 116. Memory 107 includes importers 108, janitors110, build engine 112, service engine 114, and requester 154, each ofwhich are preferably implemented as instructions stored in memory 107and executable by processor 116. Memory 107 also includes repository115. Repository 115 can be stored in a memory of one or more computersystems or in a type of memory such as a disk. FIG. 1 also includes acomputer readable medium 118 containing, for example, at least one ofimporters 108, janitors 110, build engine 112, service engine 114,requester 154, and at least some portions of repository 115. FIG. 1 alsoincludes one or more input/output devices 120 that allow data to beinput and output to and from data processing system 106. It will beunderstood that data processing system 106 preferably also includesstandard software components such as operating systems and the like andfurther preferably includes standard hardware components not shown inthe figure for clarity of example.

FIG. 2(a) shows an example format of a data structure for facts withinrepository 115, according to some embodiments of the invention. Asdescribed above, the repository 115 includes facts 204. Each fact 204includes a unique identifier for that fact, such as a fact ID 210. Eachfact 204 includes at least an attribute 212 and a value 214. Forexample, a fact associated with an object representing George Washingtonmay include an attribute of “date of birth” and a value of “Feb. 22,1732.” In one embodiment, all facts are stored as alphanumericcharacters since they are extracted from web pages. In anotherembodiment, facts also can store binary data values. Other embodiments,however, may store fact values as mixed types, or in encoded formats.

As described above, each fact is associated with an object ID 209 thatidentifies the object that the fact describes. Thus, each fact that isassociated with a same entity (such as George Washington), will have thesame object ID 209. In one embodiment, objects are not stored asseparate data entities in memory. In this embodiment, the factsassociated with an object contain the same object ID, but no physicalobject exists. In another embodiment, objects are stored as dataentities in memory, and include references (for example, pointers orIDs) to the facts associated with the object. The logical data structureof a fact can take various forms; in general, a fact is represented by atuple that includes a fact ID, an attribute, a value, and an object ID.The storage implementation of a fact can be in any underlying physicaldata structure.

FIG. 2(b) shows an example of facts having respective fact IDs of 10,20, and 30 in repository 115. Facts 10 and 20 are associated with anobject identified by object ID “1.” Fact 10 has an attribute of “Name”and a value of “China.” Fact 20 has an attribute of “Category” and avalue of “Country.” Thus, the object identified by object ID “1” has aname fact 205 with a value of “China” and a category fact 206 with avalue of “Country.” Fact 30 208 has an attribute of “Property” and avalue of ““Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from1993 to 2001.” Thus, the object identified by object ID “2” has aproperty fact with a fact ID of 30 and a value of “Bill Clinton was the42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.” In theillustrated embodiment, each fact has one attribute and one value. Thenumber of facts associated with an object is not limited; thus whileonly two facts are shown for the “China” object, in practice there maybe dozens, even hundreds of facts associated with a given object. Also,the value fields of a fact need not be limited in size or content. Forexample, a fact about the economy of “China” with an attribute of“Economy” would have a value including several paragraphs of text,numbers, perhaps even tables of figures. This content can be formatted,for example, in a markup language. For example, a fact having anattribute “original html” might have a value of the original html texttaken from the source web page.

Also, while the illustration of FIG. 2(b) shows the explicit coding ofobject ID, fact ID, attribute, and value, in practice the content of thefact can be implicitly coded as well (e.g., the first field being theobject ID, the second field being the fact ID, the third field being theattribute, and the fourth field being the value). Other fields includebut are not limited to: the language used to state the fact (English,etc.), how important the fact is, the source of the fact, a confidencevalue for the fact, and so on.

FIG. 2(c) shows an example object reference table 210 that is used insome embodiments. Not all embodiments include an object reference table.The object reference table 210 functions to efficiently maintain theassociations between object IDs and fact IDs. In the absence of anobject reference table 210, it is also possible to find all facts for agiven object ID by querying the repository to find all facts with aparticular object ID. While FIGS. 2(b) and 2(c) illustrate the objectreference table 210 with explicit coding of object and fact IDs, thetable also may contain just the ID values themselves in column orpair-wise arrangements.

FIG. 2(d) shows an example of a data structure for facts withinrepository 115, according to some embodiments of the invention showingan extended format of facts. In this example, the fields include anobject reference link 216 to another object. The object reference link216 can be an object ID of another object in the repository 115, or areference to the location (e.g., table row) for the object in the objectreference table 210. The object reference link 216 allows facts to haveas values other objects. For example, for an object “United States,”there may be a fact with the attribute of “president” and the value of“George W. Bush,” with “George W. Bush” being an object having its ownfacts in repository 115. In some embodiments, the value field 214 storesthe name of the linked object and the link 216 stores the objectidentifier of the linked object. Thus, this “president” fact wouldinclude the value 214 of “George W. Bush”, and object reference link 216that contains the object ID for the for “George W. Bush” object. In someother embodiments, facts 204 do not include a link field 216 because thevalue 214 of a fact 204 may store a link to another object.

Each fact 204 also may include one or more metrics 218. A metricprovides an indication of the some quality of the fact. In someembodiments, the metrics include a confidence level and an importancelevel. The confidence level indicates the likelihood that the fact iscorrect. The importance level indicates the relevance of the fact to theobject, compared to other facts for the same object. The importancelevel may optionally be viewed as a measure of how vital a fact is to anunderstanding of the entity or concept represented by the object.

Each fact 204 includes a list of one or more sources 220 that includethe fact and from which the fact was extracted. Each source may beidentified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), or Web address, or anyother appropriate form of identification and/or location, such as aunique document identifier.

The facts illustrated in FIG. 2(d) include an agent field 222 thatidentifies the importer 108 that extracted the fact. For example, theimporter 108 may be a specialized importer that extracts facts from aspecific source (e.g., the pages of a particular web site, or family ofweb sites) or type of source (e.g., web pages that present factualinformation in tabular form), or an importer 108 that extracts factsfrom free text in documents throughout the Web, and so forth.

Some embodiments include one or more specialized facts, such as a namefact 207 and a property fact 208. A name fact 207 is a fact that conveysa name for the entity or concept represented by the object ID. A namefact 207 includes an attribute 224 of “name” and a value, which is thename of the object. For example, for an object representing the countrySpain, a name fact would have the value “Spain.” A name fact 207, beinga special instance of a general fact 204, includes the same fields asany other fact 204; it has an attribute, a value, a fact ID, metrics,sources, etc. The attribute 224 of a name fact 207 indicates that thefact is a name fact, and the value is the actual name. The name may be astring of characters. An object ID may have one or more associated namefacts, as many entities or concepts can have more than one name. Forexample, an object ID representing Spain may have associated name factsconveying the country's common name “Spain” and the official name“Kingdom of Spain.” As another example, an object ID representing theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office may have associated name factsconveying the agency's acronyms “PTO” and “USPTO” as well as theofficial name “United States Patent and Trademark Office.” If an objectdoes have more than one associated name fact, one of the name facts maybe designated as a primary name and other name facts may be designatedas secondary names, either implicitly or explicitly.

A property fact 208 is a fact that conveys a statement about the entityor concept represented by the object ID. Property facts are generallyused for summary information about an object. A property fact 208, beinga special instance of a general fact 204, also includes the sameparameters (such as attribute, value, fact ID, etc.) as other facts 204.The attribute field 226 of a property fact 208 indicates that the factis a property fact (e.g., attribute is “property”) and the value is astring of text that conveys the statement of interest. For example, forthe object ID representing Bill Clinton, the value of a property factmay be the text string “Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of theUnited States from 1993 to 2001.”” Some object IDs may have one or moreassociated property facts while other objects may have no associatedproperty facts. It should be appreciated that the data structures shownin FIGS. 2(a)-2(d) and described above are merely exemplary. The datastructure of the repository 115 may take on other forms. Other fieldsmay be included in facts and some of the fields described above may beomitted. Additionally, each object ID may have additional special factsaside from name facts and property facts, such as facts conveying a typeor category (for example, person, place, movie, actor, organization,etc.) for categorizing the entity or concept represented by the objectID. In some embodiments, an object's name(s) and/or properties may berepresented by special records that have a different format than thegeneral facts records 204.

As described previously, a collection of facts is associated with anobject ID of an object. An object may become a null or empty object whenfacts are disassociated from the object. A null object can arise in anumber of different ways. One type of null object is an object that hashad all of its facts (including name facts) removed, leaving no factsassociated with its object ID. Another type of null object is an objectthat has all of its associated facts other than name facts removed,leaving only its name fact(s). Alternatively, the object may be a nullobject only if all of its associated name facts are removed. A nullobject represents an entity or concept for which the data processingsystem 106 has no factual information and, as far as the data processingsystem 106 is concerned, does not exist. In some embodiments, facts of anull object may be left in the repository 115, but have their object IDvalues cleared (or have their importance to a negative value). However,the facts of the null object are treated as if they were removed fromthe repository 115. In some other embodiments, facts of null objects arephysically removed from repository 115.

FIG. 2(e) is a block diagram illustrating an alternate data structure290 for facts and objects in accordance with preferred embodiments ofthe invention. In this data structure, an object 290 contains an objectID 292 and references or points to facts 294. Each fact includes a factID 295, an attribute 297, and a value 299. In this embodiment, an object290 actually exists in memory 107.

FIG. 3 is a high-level block diagram illustrating modules within apresentation engine 300 according to one embodiment. As used herein, theterm “module” refers to computer program logic and/or data for providingthe specified functionality. A module can be implemented in hardware,firmware, and/or software. Some embodiments have different and/oradditional modules than those shown in FIG. 3. Moreover, thefunctionalities can be distributed among the modules in a differentmanner than described here.

A presentation engine 300 presents objects and facts in a customizablemanner. That is, the presentation engine 300 provides flexible toolsthat enable an end-user to view the facts of one or more objects in waysdesired by the end-user. The presentation engine 300 thus allows theend-user to view information in a way that is more comprehensible to theend-user.

In one embodiment, the modules of the presentation engine 300 areimplemented as a JavaScript program that executes on client devices suchas personal computers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants(PDAs), etc. The JavaScript program interfaces with the data processingsystem 106 to access data and functionalities provided by it. TheJavaScript program itself is controlled by a web browser, operatingsystem, or other entity executing on the client device. In otherembodiments, the presentation engine 300 is implemented using differentcoding techniques, relies solely on client-side data, and/or executes onthe server.

An object access module 310 receives objects from the fact repository115 and/or another source. In one embodiment, the objects are receivedin response to end-user interactions with a search engine or otherobject requester 152 that provides access to the fact repository 115.For example, an end-user can utilize a search engine to search the factrepository 115 for objects matching a particular query. The objectrequestor 152 returns a set of matching objects. A user interfaceprovided by the object access module 310 and/or another module allowsthe end-user to select particular objects and designate the objects forfurther analysis. In this manner, the end-user can execute multipledifferent searches on the fact repository 115 and designate objects fromthe different searches for further analysis.

For example, assume that the fact repository 115 stores a set of objectsof type “atomic element,” including at least one object for each of theatomic elements. Also assume that the end-user executes a query forobjects that match the phrase “atomic elements.” The results of thisquery include all of the objects of type “atomic element” may alsoproduce other objects depending upon the information in the objectsand/or the search algorithms. The end-user can select one or more ofthese objects and designate the selected object for further analysis.For purposes of this example, assume that the end-user designates eachone object for each atomic element.

In another embodiment, the object access module 310 receives the objectsfrom the end-user. For example, the end-user can supply user definedobjects for use with the presentation engine 300. Further, the end-usercan encounter objects on the network 104 at locations other than thefact repository 115, such as on web pages not associated with therepository, and cause the object access module 310 to supply thoseobjects to the presentation engine 300.

In one embodiment, a collection module 312 receives the objectsdesignated for further analysis by the end-user. The collection module312 stores multiple collections, and each collection stores zero or moreobjects. In one embodiment, the end-user specifies the collection inwhich the collection module 312 stores the designated objects. In otherembodiments, the collection module 312 stores designated objects in adefault collection if the end-user does not specify a particularcollection. The collection module 312 provides an interface allowing theend-user to manipulate the collections and the objects within thecollections. For example, the end-user can view the objects withindifferent collections, and add and remove objects.

Although most of this discussion focuses on a collection containingobjects for the atomic elements, a collection can hold arbitrary andheterogeneous objects. For example, a collection can contain objects forthe atomic elements, the actor M. Emmet Walsh, and the country China.Some heterogeneous objects may have attributes in common, while otherobjects might not have any common attributes.

A storage module 314 stores the collections and/or other data utilizedby the presentation engine 300 for its operation. The storage module 314acts as a place where other modules in the presentation engine 300 canstore and retrieve information. In one embodiment, the storage module314 is a logical construct that uses storage allocated from virtualmemory on the client device on which the presentation engine 300 isexecuting. In other embodiments, some or all of the storage provided bythe storage module 314 is located on a server connected to the clientvia the network 104. For example, the collection module 312 can storecollections in the storage module 314. The storage module 314 stores thedata describing the collections and references to the objects within thecollections in a memory on the client. However, the objects themselvesare stored on a server accessible via the network 104 and retrieved fromthe server when necessary or desired.

A user interface (UI) generation module 316 generates a UI for theend-user. Generally, the UI allows the end-user to view and manipulatethe objects and the facts within the objects. In addition, the UI allowsthe end-user to control other aspects of the presentation engine 300,such as executing a search for new objects and designating objects forstorage in a collection. In one embodiment, the UI is displayed on adisplay device of the client and contains buttons, list boxes, textboxes, images, hyperlinks, and/or other tools with which the end-usercan control the presentation engine.

In one embodiment, the UI generation module 316 includes other modulesfor generating specific UI elements. These modules include a tabularpresentation module 318 that generates UI elements displaying objectsand facts in tables. Further, the UI generation module 316 includes agraphical presentation module 320 for displaying objects and facts ingraphs. Additionally, the UI generation module includes a mappresentation module 322 that displays objects and facts in combinationwith maps. The UI elements provided by these modules are described inmore detail below.

A scoring module 324 evaluates objects, attributes, and values andoutputs corresponding scores. These scores can be used to produce rankedlists of objects and/or facts. The factors utilized for the evaluationsand scores depend upon the embodiment and the objects, attributes,and/or values being evaluated. In one embodiment, the presentationengine 300 uses the scores produced by the scoring module 324 toestablish facts to show in certain UIs. The operation of the scoringmodule 324 is described in more detail below.

FIG. 4 illustrates a UI 400 contained on a web page generated by the UIgeneration module 316 according to one embodiment. User interfacesgenerated by other embodiments have different and/or additional elementsthan the interface of FIG. 4. Moreover, the UI elements can be arrangedin a different manner than is shown in the figure. Although notspecifically discussed below, many of the elements of the UI arehyperlinks that the end-user can select to access additionalinformation. FIG. 4 and the other figures illustrating UIs showexemplary interfaces where the end-user has searched for, and isviewing, objects for the atomic elements.

The UI 400 of FIG. 4 is utilized by the end-user to search for factsand/or objects matching a particular search query and to save designatedobjects in a collection. In addition, the end-user can use the UI 400 toview facts about the objects. To this end, the top of the UI 400contains a text input box in which the end-user can provide a textualdescription of the search query (e.g., keywords to search) and a button412 the end-user can select to execute the search.

A results area 414 below the search text input box 410 displays objectsthat match the search query. In the illustrated embodiment, the resultsarea 414 displays the names of the objects and a few facts about eachobject. The UI 400 includes a scroll bar 416 with which the end-user canview objects that are lower on the page.

In the illustrated UI 400, the results area 414 shows the objects forthe elements Actinium, Polonium, and Chromium. The names 418 of theelements are displayed, along with images 420 that illustrate therespective elements. Beneath each name 418 is a set of facts 422 aboutthe element. The illustrated UI shows four facts 422 about each element,although other embodiments can show fewer or more facts. For example,for the element Actinium the displayed facts 422 are: Obtained From:extremely rare Uses: No uses known Discoverer: Andre Debierne Color:SilveryIn addition, each displayed fact includes a URL that links to the sourcepage from which the fact was derived.

The initial facts displayed for an object are determined based on scoresproduced by the scoring module 324. The scoring module 324 calculatesscores for the facts of the object based on the metric (e.g., theimportance and confidence levels) and outputs a ranked list. Factshaving high importance and confidence are generally ranked higher thanfacts having low importance and/or confidence. In one embodiment, therankings produced by the scoring module 324 are influenced by the searchquery utilized to produce the list of objects. The scoring module 324can increase the importance component of a fact if that fact matches asearch term. For example, a search query for “atomic element weight”will produce an increased importance for the “atomic weight” fact of anobject, and likely result in the atomic weight fact being ranked highenough to appear on the UI 400.

Each displayed object 418 includes a button 424 that the end-user canselect to save the object to a collection. In addition, other buttons426 on the UI 400 provide the end-user with the options of saving allsearch results to a collection or saving only visible results to thecollection. The collection 428 itself is displayed in a column on theleft side of the UI 400. The names of the objects 430 in the collectionare displayed, along with a check box with which the end-user can removethe objects from the collection 428.

The illustrated UI 400 includes a “table” button 434 near the collectiondisplay. When this button 434 is selected by the end-user, the UI 400presents a tabular view of the objects in the collection. This tabularview is produced by the tabular presentation module 318. Otherembodiments of the presentation engine 300 provide other ways to accessthe table functionality.

FIG. 5 illustrates a UI 500 including a tabular view 510 of objects andfacts according to one embodiment. The illustrated table 510 containsfour columns and a row for every object. The leftmost column 512 liststhe names of the objects, which in this case are the atomic elements(Actinium, Polonium, Chromium . . .). The columns to the right 514display attributes of the objects. In FIG. 5, the attributes displayedare the atomic masses, densities, and boiling points of the respectiveelements.

The tabular presentation module 318 uses the scoring module 324 toselect the initial attributes for the right-side columns 514 of thetable 510. In one embodiment, the scoring module 324 identifies the mostcommon attributes of the objects in the collection 428, and produces alist of the attributes sorted by commonality. Thus, an attribute sharedby all of the objects in the collection 428 is ranked first in the list,while an attribute possessed by only one of the objects is ranked last.In one embodiment, the metrics associated with the attributes' facts areused to break ties. The tabular presentation module 318 shows thehighest ranked attributes in the initial columns 514 of the table 510.

A drop down selection box 516 displayed near the top of the table 510allows the end-user to select additional facts to include in the table.In one embodiment, the selection box 516 contains every unique attributefrom the objects in the collection 428. The end-user can select one ofthe attributes, and in response the UI 500 adds a column to the tableshowing the values of the objects for the selected attribute. In oneembodiment, the new column is made the rightmost column of the table510. If an object lacks the attribute displayed in the table 510, oneembodiment displays a blank space, text indicating that the attribute isnot applicable, or another indicator that the object lacks theattribute.

The columns 514 of the table 500 displaying facts contain additionalbuttons allowing the end-user to manipulate the table. In oneembodiment, each column contains buttons 518 labeled “Remove,” “Sort,”and “Graph.” The “Remove” button, when selected, removes the specifiedcolumn from the table 510. If the “Sort” button is selected, the tableis resorted based on the values of the attribute represented by thespecified column. For example, choosing the “Sort” button of the“Density” column causes the table 510 to resort the atomic elementsbased on their densities.

When the “Graph” button is selected by the end-user, the UI 500 presentsa graphical view of the objects in the collection. This graphical viewis produced by the graphical presentation module 320. Specifically, theUI 500 presents a graph showing the objects' values for the attribute ofthe column selected by the end-user.

The graphical presentation module 320 determines the type of graph thatbest facilitates interpretation of the facts by the end-user andautomatically generates a graph of that type. In one embodiment,graphical presentation module 320 considers the type of facts beinggraphed in determining the initial graph type. One consideration is theformat of the value for the fact being graphed, e.g., whether the valueis represented by a number, text, graphic, sound, etc. Anotherconsideration is the meaning of the fact, e.g., is it a date, name,location, quantity, temperature, etc. In one embodiment, the graphicalpresentation module 320 determines the meaning of a fact from datawithin the object. For example, the meaning can be explicitly specifiedby meta-data within the object or can be derived from the name of theattribute associated with the fact.

The specific types of graphs that the graphical presentation module 320produces can vary depending upon the embodiment and/or the values beinggraphed. In one embodiment, the module 320 graphs facts that are dateson a timeline. A timeline facilitates the interpretation of dates suchas dates of births, deaths, disasters, discoveries and the like.

In one embodiment, the graphical presentation module 320 uses maps tograph facts that are locations because maps represent a good way tofacilitate the understanding of such facts. The graphical presentationmodule 320 interacts with a map presentation module 322 to produce themaps. In one embodiment, the map presentation module 322 holds maps ofgeographic regions. The facts of objects specify geographic locations,such as countries, places of births and death, etc. either explicitly(e.g., latitude/longitude) or implicitly (e.g., by name). The graphicalpresentation module 320 uses the maps and facts to produce maps thatillustrate the locations specified by the facts. For example, anend-user can execute a search on “volcanoes” and create a collectionthat stores objects representing volcanoes. Each of these volcanoobjects includes a fact that describes the volcano's location. Theend-user can use the graphical presentation module 320 and mappresentation module 322 to create a map that shows the locations of thevolcanoes using push pins or other icons. Similarly, the end-user cancreate a collection of NBA basketball players, and then create a mapshowing the place of birth of each one.

Other embodiments of the graphical presentation module 320 graph othertypes of facts using other specialized graphs. In one embodiment, if thevalues of the attributes are numeric and are not of a type having aspecialized graph, the graphical presentation module 320 produces a bargraph showing the value of the attribute for each object. If the valuesare not numeric, the graphical presentation module 320 produces ahistogram grouping objects having the same value for the attribute. Ineither case, the graph shows the attribute along the X-axis. In oneembodiment, the graphical presentation module 320 shows the graph as ascatter plot if two attributes are being graphed simultaneously.

FIG. 6 illustrates a UI 600 including a graphical view 610 of objectsand facts according to one embodiment. Specifically, FIG. 6 illustratesthe graph 610 produced by the graphical presentation module 320 when theend-user selects the “graph” button for the “Atomic Mass” attribute. Thegraph 610 is a bar graph, with each bar representing one object (i.e.,atomic element) and the height of the bar representing the value of thatobject's “Atomic Mass” attribute.

As shown in FIG. 6, the UI 600 illustrates the table 510 of objects inaddition to the graph 610. In one embodiment, the end-user can use the“Sort” and “Graph” buttons to update the graph. If the end-user selectsthe “Sort” button for a column, the graphical presentation module 320resorts the graph (if necessary), based on the selected attribute. Theend-user can sort the graph based on an attribute that is not displayedin the graph. For example, the end-user can select the “Sort” button forthe “Density” field and sort the graph of atomic masses by the objects'densities, so that the leftmost bar on the X-axis of the graph shows theatomic mass of the element having the lowest (or highest) density.

The end-user can use the “Graph” buttons to add or remove attributesfrom the graph 610. When an attribute is shown in the graph 610, itscorresponding “Graph” button becomes a “No Graph” button. The end-userselects the “No Graph” button to remove the attribute from the graph. Ifan attribute shown in the table 510 is not displayed on the graph 610,the end-user can select that attribute's “Graph” button and cause theattribute to be graphed.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a map 700 produced by the graphicalpresentation module 320 and map presentation module 322 according to oneembodiment. The map 700 shows potentially active volcanoes in the stateof Oregon. The map illustrates the border 710 of the state, and showsfive push pins 712 representing the locations of the volcanoes withinOregon.

In one embodiment, the end-user can obtain additional information abouta graphed object by using a mouse or other pointing device to move acursor over the graphical representation of the object. For example, ifthe end-user moves the cursor over a particular bar of a bar graph, thegraphical presentation module 320 displays additional facts about theobject. Similarly, the end-user can move the cursor over a push pin iconon a map to view additional facts about the object having the locationidentified by the push pin.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a timeline 800 produced by thegraphical presentation module 320 according to one embodiment. Thetimeline 800 illustrates the period between 1775 and 1785 and shows theatomic elements discovered within that period. Thus, the timeline 800shows that molybdenum was discovered in 1778, tungsten was discovered in1783, and tellurium was discovered in 1782.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating steps performed by the presentationengine 300 according to one embodiment. Other embodiments perform thesteps in different orders and/or perform different or additional stepsthan the ones shown in FIG. 9. This description describes the steps asoccurring through interactions with an end-user. In other embodiments,the steps can be performed through automated processes.

Initially, the presentation engine 300 establishes 910 a collection ofobjects. This collection is typically established when an end-userinteracts with the presentation engine 300, a search engine, and/orother entities to view a list of objects. The end-user selects certainobjects and designates them for further analysis. The presentationengine 300 stores the designated objects in a collection or otherlogical grouping.

The end-user interacts with the presentation engine 300 to generate 912a visual representation of the designated objects. For example, theend-user can use a UI presented by the presentation engine 300 togenerate a table showing facts of the objects. Likewise, the end-usercan cause the presentation engine 300 to generate graphs, timelines, andmaps showing facts of the objects. Further, the end-user can manipulate914 the visual representation by adding columns to a table, sorting thevalues shown by a graph, moving a cursor over a push pin icon on a map,etc. Using the presentation engine 300, the end-user can thus view thefacts of the objects in a manner that is beneficial to the end-user,rather than being forced to use the presentation selected by the entitythat initially provided the objects and/or facts.

The above description is included to illustrate the operation of thepreferred embodiments and is not meant to limit the scope of theinvention. The scope of the invention is to be limited only by thefollowing claims. From the above discussion, many variations will beapparent to one skilled in the relevant art that would yet beencompassed by the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A computer-based system for presenting facts, comprising: an objectaccess module adapted to establish a set of objects, each object havinga set of facts, each fact having an attribute and a corresponding value;an interface module adapted to provide a user interface for identifyingone or more facts of the objects in the set to present; and apresentation module for presenting via the user interface arepresentation of the identified facts of the objects in the set, therepresentation describing the attributes and corresponding values of theidentified facts.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a factrepository adapted to store a collection of objects; wherein the objectaccess module establishes the set of objects responsive to a queryexecuted against the collection of objects in the fact repository. 3.The system of claim 1, wherein a fact has an associated metric andfurther comprising: a scoring module adapted to produce scores for thefacts responsive to the facts' metrics; wherein the presentation moduleis further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to thefacts' scores.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein a metric comprises: aconfidence level indicating a likelihood that the fact is correct; andan importance value indicating a relevance of the fact to its associatedobject.
 5. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a scoring moduleadapted to determine a commonality of the attributes of the objects inthe set; wherein the presentation module is further adapted to presentrepresentations of facts responsive to the attributes' commonality. 6.The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation module comprises: atabular presentation module adapted to generate a table describing theidentified facts of the objects in the set.
 7. The system of claim 6,wherein the interface module is further adapted to provide a userinterface enabling an end-user to selectively indicate which facts ofthe objects the tabular presentation module includes in the table. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the presentation module comprises: agraphical presentation module adapted to generate a graph describing theidentified facts of the objects in the set.
 9. The system of claim 8,wherein the graphical presentation module is further adapted todetermine a type of graph to generate responsive to a value of anidentified fact.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the graph describesvalues of the identified facts in an order, and wherein the order isselected responsive to values of a fact not described in the graph. 11.The system of claim 1, wherein a fact of an object comprises a date andwherein the presentation module is further adapted to generate atimeline displaying the date of the fact.
 12. A computer program producthaving a computer-readable medium having computer program instructionsembodied therein for presenting facts, the computer program instructionscomprising: an object access module adapted to establish a set ofobjects, each object having a set of facts, each fact having anattribute and a corresponding value; an interface module adapted toprovide a user interface for identifying one or more facts of theobjects in the set to present; and a presentation module for presentingvia the user interface a representation of the identified facts of theobjects in the set, the representation describing the attributes andcorresponding values of the identified facts.
 13. The computer programproduct of claim 12, further comprising: a fact repository adapted tostore a collection of objects; wherein the object access moduleestablishes the set of objects responsive to a query executed againstthe collection of objects in the fact repository.
 14. The computerprogram product of claim 12, wherein a fact has an associated metric andfurther comprising: a scoring module adapted to produce scores for thefacts responsive to the facts' metrics; wherein the presentation moduleis further adapted to present representations of facts responsive to thefacts' scores.
 15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein ametric comprises: a confidence level indicating a likelihood that thefact is correct; and an importance value indicating a relevance of thefact to its associated object.
 16. The computer program product of claim12, further comprising: a scoring module adapted to determine acommonality of the attributes of the objects in the set; wherein thepresentation module is further adapted to present representations offacts responsive to the attributes' commonality.
 17. The computerprogram product of claim 12, wherein the presentation module comprises:a tabular presentation module adapted to generate a table describing theidentified facts of the objects in the set.
 18. The computer programproduct of claim 17, wherein the interface module is further adapted toprovide a user interface enabling an end-user to selectively indicatewhich facts of the objects the tabular presentation module includes inthe table.
 19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein thepresentation module comprises: a graphical presentation module adaptedto generate a graph describing the identified facts of the objects inthe set.
 20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein thegraphical presentation module is further adapted to determine a type ofgraph to generate responsive to a value of an identified fact.
 21. Thecomputer program product of claim 19, wherein the graph describes valuesof the identified facts in an order, and wherein the order is selectedresponsive to values of a fact not described in the graph.
 22. Thecomputer program product of claim 12, wherein a fact of an objectcomprises a date and wherein the presentation module is further adaptedto generate a timeline displaying the date of the fact.
 23. Acomputer-implemented method of presenting facts, comprising:establishing a set of objects, each object having a set of facts, eachfact having an attribute and a corresponding value; identifying one ormore facts of the objects in the set to present; and presenting a visualrepresentation of the identified facts of the objects in the set, therepresentation describing the attributes and corresponding values of theidentified facts.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:executing a query against a repository storing a collection of objectsto identify a set of objects satisfying the query.
 25. The method ofclaim 23, wherein a fact has an associated metric and furthercomprising: scoring the facts responsive to the facts' metrics toproduce scores for the facts; and identifying the one or more facts ofthe objects in the set to present responsive to the facts' scores. 26.The method of claim 25, wherein a metric comprises: a confidence levelindicating a likelihood that the fact is correct; and an importancevalue indicating a relevance of a fact to its associated object.
 27. Themethod of claim 23, further comprising: identifying a commonality of theattributes of the objects in the set; and identifying the one or morefacts of the objects in the set to present responsive to the commonalityof the attributes.
 28. The method of claim 23, the presenting furthercomprises: presenting a table describing the identified facts of theobjects in the set.
 29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:providing a user interface enabling an end-user to selectively indicatewhich facts of the objects to include in the table.
 30. The method ofclaim 23, wherein the presenting further comprises: generating a graphdescribing the identified facts of the objects in the set.
 31. Themethod of claim 30, wherein the presenting further comprises:determining a type of graph to generate responsive to a value of anidentified fact.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein the graph describesvalues of the identified facts in an order, and further comprising:ordering the values of the identified facts in an order generatedresponsive to values of a fact not described in the graph.
 33. Themethod of claim 23, wherein a fact of an object comprises a date andwherein the presenting further comprises: generating a timelinedisplaying the date of the fact.
 34. A computer-implemented method ofpresenting facts of objects stored in a fact repository, comprising:establishing a collection of objects responsive to at least one query tothe fact repository initiated by a user, each object in the collectionhaving a set of facts; receiving input from the user identifying one ormore facts of the objects in the collection to present in a visualmanner; and providing the user with a visual representation of theidentified facts of the objects.
 35. The method of claim 34, whereinproviding the user with a visual representation comprises: generating agraphical representation that emphasizes distinctions between facts ofdifferent objects.
 36. The method of claim 35, wherein a fact iscomprised of an attribute and a value, wherein multiple objects possessa same attribute, and wherein the graphical representation emphasizesdistinctions between different values of an attribute possessed bymultiple objects.